Lying Low
by evangelinetaylorevans
Summary: Annabeth has always been that nerdy loner. When her brother gets the lead role for a famous movie, and becomes famous, her whole family splits apart. What happens when Annabeth's brother and his best friend, Percy, worm themselves into her life before she realises and it's too late? AU, Percabeth, please R&R! Please no flames, just constructive criticism as this is my first story!


**Lying Low**

Story by Evangeline Taylor Evans

**Chapter 1**

It's hard to get people to notice you when your twin brother's the teen's hottest celebrity on earth. So I learnt to stay in the background, to appear invisible to the people around me who are too blind to notice me. Of course, a couple of people have noticed me, but I blow them off. I stopped enjoying other people's company a long time ago.

Malcolm became famous when he was eight. He had always enjoyed drama, so when he saw an advertisement in the newspaper for an eight to nine year old boy to play the leading role in an upcoming movie, he just had to audition. I had read the book, loved it, and told Mal about it, but he was never into reading much. He still recognised the title when he saw the advertisement, though.

So he went to the audition. I expected him to be nervous; after all, I would be if I were auditioning, but he wasn't. He was never one for nerves. I could read him perfectly; I could see the excitement and anticipation etched onto his face as he was called into the audition room. About twenty minutes later, he emerged from the room, looking if possible, even more thrilled and in awe by the place. The whole car trip home, he was talking nonstop, about his audition, and how they would send him a letter if he got through to the next round of auditions, where they narrowed their options down even more.

Sure enough, the letter came in two days, announcing that the call backs would be held in a week's time. So he went along, and came back proclaiming that another letter would be sent if he got into the next round. But no letter came. Two weeks we waited, until Malcolm had given up hope. But exactly two weeks after the call back, we received a letter.

_Dear Malcolm Chase,_

_You have been selected to proceed to the third round of auditions for the lead role in the movie _The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas._ The auditions will be held at the Peter Duly Concert Hall on the 22__nd__ of July. We expect to see you at 4:00 pm sharp. We look forward to seeing you again._

_Signed,_

_John Kellara,_

_Head Director and Producer of Wilson Bros'_

Dad was thrilled. We had been struggling with money a bit recently (although Malcolm and I were too young to realise it), and if Mal got the part, he would get paid quite a bit. Mum, though, wasn't so happy. I remember mum and dad having an argument. Something about how actors weren't smart enough to live up to the family name, and how she had planned for him to be something smart, like a doctor, or engineer. Things were tense from then on. Mal and I knew something was going on, but neither mum or dad was admitting it to us. So we acted like nothing was wrong.

Mal's audition came and went, and he got called back one final time. It was between him and one other boy. Naturally, he got the part, as I had secretly suspected all along. There was a huge fight, though, between mum and dad; it lasted for what seemed like hours. Mal and I were lying in our shared bedroom when it happened, and we could feel the walls shaking.

Mum left. And I never saw her again after that day.

So dad raised us all by himself. It was difficult at first, but we made it eventually. I remember being jealous of Mal, since he had two years of filming, which meant he didn't have to go to school on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays and Thursdays. He had a tutor all day to learn the curriculum on Fridays and Saturdays, and he had a break on Sunday. _He_ didn't have to go to school, _he_ didn't have to suffer through boring maths, and read books for reading circles, which I had read three years ago, _he_ didn't have to sit alone at recess and lunch every day at school.

When I tried to tell my dad all of this, he just smiled knowingly, and said, "your time will come to shine, Annabeth." It frustrated me so much I started to avoid him. I stopped telling him every detail of my school day (mostly about not learning _anything_ new), and I stopped spending time with him after school, rather stayed in my bedroom and read.

And that's the story of how my life fell apart. I barely saw Mal, and when he finished the movie two years later, he had changed in so many indescribable ways. The movie was massive, and known all over the world. Mal got offered other roles in other movies. By this time, he was 10.

And that brings us back to now. Mal and I are sixteen now, and we couldn't be more different. I'm the loner nerd who's always reading who everyone avoids, and he's the hot celeb who everyone loves and wants to know. This is my story, the story of how Malcolm, and one of his best friends, Percy, a famous singer, worm their way back into my life, without me realising until it's much too late.

**So this is just an introduction of sorts (I know there's no dialogue; don't worry, more to come!) and it's more to set the scene, so that's why it's kinda short. Please review and tell me what you think!**

**~ Ev ~**


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